The three deaths were reported in the news, especially due to the oddity they presented. Not a single sign found on the hotel's hallway security cameras, not so much as a footprint or creaky floorboard found, all the evidence pointed to them all being perfectly healthy and asleep in one moment, bar the one kid's prosthetics, and in the next moments they all just died. That was one of the details that all the tests could agree one, all three died with no apparent cause, there was no sign of anybody else having been present, no signs of any struggle, and all deaths occurred within moments of each other.

What the police and reporters didn't know is that Memnol had arrived early that morning, having teleported in after casting Perfect Invisibility on himself and activating his, once Cloak of Etherealness and downgraded on further inspection, Cloak of Incorporealness, though the idea that it was just downgraded in the banishment made him have some new hope at there actually being an ethereal plane here. When he was there, an idea had hit him and he cast a Silent Wish, acquiring a Staff of Necromancy. A brief tangent just to inform you that casting a Silent Wish, mentally willing something and having the very Weave accommodate you, is an Immeasurably satisfying feeling. He soon cast the 3 Silent Fingers of Death he had prepared on them. After that, the three lay peacefully, and only one of them got to stay that way, as he used the staff to Soul Bind Emerald and Mercury. It wasn't hard, given his two minutes and some window, so he took a moment to ponder at what it meant that after trapping Emerald's soul, a green aura-effect would very occasionally flicker from the staff, and white was added after Mercury's soul was stuffed in there. While he had briefly considered doing the same to Cinder, he had elected against it, having been distinctly ordered to end her 'without complication', to paraphrase.

He teleported out after that, though an idea had begun to run in his mind through the day.

"If I can Wish for many existing magic items," He thought during another of Port's long rambles that he left a fraction of his mind to listen to, "And I know I could Wish to improve them before, then the only thing stopping me from creating something properly unreasonable is testing if that still holds true, then getting around to layering Wishes into it. I must test it after this class, during lunch."

Soon enough, class ended and lunch was out. Memnol made it to the library and his current mansion without interruption. Once he was in private he took his gloves off and Wished to add Endure Elements to their constant benefits, and he was quite glad that it worked perfectly fine. As he felt he still had a touch more before his soul would push back on him trying to expend it, he Wished one more time for a new Instant Fortress and tucked it into the haversack.

He of course regained the spent Wishes with his Vest of the Archmagi, one of the pieces of equipment he mixed with his uniform now that he had it, given that it still fit in as a vest, and a little sign of being set apart/above others was something he enjoyed, having that gold and red vest as an ever-present subtle reminder, "We are not equals."

Now that the test had been successful, he had decided that he would make a more, 'publicly acceptable' weapon than a dagger. A nice and proper staff for any good- for any powerful Wizard. It only took a few moments of consideration as to what to use as a base, and soon had carefully Wished for a Quarterstaff of Alacrity for its ability to endlessly deflect projectiles. It stood exactly 5 feet tall, made of what seemed to be smooth, dark, polished oak wood in the center 3 feet, and transitioned to steel on 1 foot of both ends. Steel that was soon turned into adamantine in the span of a Perfected Polymorph for practical purposes, and oak to entirely pure, dark purple amethyst purely for vanity with another. One could see through the amethyst and light could shine and refract through it clearly, though tinted a deep violet.

With that settled, Memnol started on making it go from only mildly unreasonable, to entirely so. He had a simple plan to do so; Wish into it, layer by layer, a variety of spells he himself couldn't cast, all at unlimited uses. Did you know that if one doubled what a normal staff cost, then assuming all its abilities were one charge each, then they could be used an unlimited number of times? Memnol did.

A thought bottle retrieval and nesting later, Memnol well and truly Wished beyond the reasonable. The Weave, seemingly everlastingly permissive in the absence of an active deity, effectively said, "Sure.".

Then to Memnol's own joy and disbelief, it worked. Well, he'd have to test it to be sure, but he certainly wouldn't test it here at Beacon. An Intensified Twinned Split Ray Disintegrate is a powerful thing after all, especially unlimited. After another refresh from the last Thought Bottle in the chain, he Wished again. Another moment of triumph and Repetition later, he wished his fifth and final time that day, as he hadn't prepared any more wishes.

Though he wasn't perturbed by that, now able to also call upon a Heightened Intensified Fimbulwinter, as well what would eventually make him even more excessively hard to kill, Quickened Twinned Mass Heal, both also unlimited.

Well, he couldn't actually use the Mass Heal part yet, he just kind of added that last one in a giddy rush, akin to a child adding more and more to their new favorite toy. He was very much understanding why he was Wish-Banned before, it nearly felt mean at this point. Not that that would stop him, but still. While he had already paid all the costs upfront for this thing, if he ever offered his spellcasting services, he would absolutely be charging full price. Especially since, though he was mostly able to tune it out, it actually did start causing some amount of hard-to-describe pseudo-pain as he Wished. Apparently his initial half-truths about The Art were more accurate than he himself anticipated.

Still, he had felt a renewed sense of pride, looking at it, though it soon shifted. It wasn't ready yet, he felt. Not for others to see it, as he almost considered showing it to Ms. Ro- Ruby, he corrected himself, one of the few he knew that could appreciate the craftsmanship. It wasn't quite perfect enough yet. It never would be, he knew, but it needed to be more perfect before he could truly show it off. All things considered, he knew what he would be doing tomorrow, at the least.

He found that the whole process took maybe 5 minutes, and decided that for variety, and info, he may as well join the two teams for lunch. Soon enough he was waved over by Ruby again, and sat down. From the scraps of conversation he heard, Jaune seemed to have overcome the Cardin issue while he was off on the mission. The Mission, which was now the topic of discussion with his arrival.

Ruby had said, "I can barely believe you already got to go on a mission! Howwasithowasithowwasit?"

Weiss on his other side said, "There are already rumors spreading about how you decimated an army of Grimm, although I imagine it was just a large pack. What is the truth out of those rumors?"

Memnol halted for a good moment, before saying, "What exactly are these rumors, I can refute or back them up as we go."

Blake said, already expecting the answer, "Every night you traveled was spent in absolute luxury."

Memnol said, "Each night was indeed in a Magnificent Mansion."

Ren said, "They said you caused a pack of Grimm to explode with a glance."

Memnol said, "Moderately incorrect, only one exploded, the rest were caught in the explosion."

Jaune said, "Okay, you turned an army of Grimm into ice? That one has to be-"

Memnol said, "Potentially true. I do not know what number would constitute an 'army', but there were approximately one-hundred and fifty Beowulves, fifty-five Ursa Majors, and three King Taijutus, as well as an additional dozen Creepers. All of which were indeed turned into ice."

There was yet another moment of silence, but the moments were getting slowly shorter, as this time it was broken by Nora leaning back and making a frame with her fingers, and then saying, "Yep. Ice King!"

Jaune and Weiss said, at the same time, "Huh?"

Nora said, "If Weiss is the Ice Queen, then Memnol's the Ice King! Look at the similarities. Oh! Maybe Memnol's your long lost twin brother!"

After the moment of laughter died down, Ruby said, "Umm, I want to ask a question, but I don't know if it's personal where you're from, soo if it is, I'm sorry."

Memnol raised an eyebrow and said, "Go on, I'll listen to the question Ruby."

Ruby, now happy at having been brought back up from 'Ms. Rose', said, "Umm, are you a, uhh, moral absolutionist?"

Ren said, "Moral Absolutist."

Ruby said, "Yeah, Moral absolutist! What Ren said!"

Memnol, genuinely confused for a moment, said, "What, exactly, do you mean?"

Ren said, "Are you someone who believes that there is some kind of absolute morality, some morality that isn't subjective."

Memnol said, "Well, of course, there is."

Just before anyone could reply, Memnol said, "It's provable, after all."

Now there was the typical moment of stunned silence. They almost considered brushing it aside, until they realized, with his Art, he could be dead serious.

Memnol was quick to catch their shock today and said, "Wait, you're all shocked about- Oh! That's right, you've not had any Practitioners of The Art! Yes, there's a number of effects that only affect certain people on the two axes."

At this, they were shaken out of it when Yang asked, "Wait, two?"

Memnol, himself nearly in disbelief, said, "Yes, Two! It's not just binary like some fools think! Let me show you, does anyone have a spare napkin to write on?"

After being handed one by Weiss, with a quick, "Thank you Ms. Schnee," in response, he drew a 3 by 3 box grid. At the top of the Y-Axis, he wrote 'Good', in the middle 'Neutral', and at the bottom 'Evil'. Then along the X-Axis, the Left got 'Lawful', the middle got 'Neutral', and the Right got 'Chaotic'. Then in each of the intersecting boxes, top left to bottom right, the initials LG, NG, CG, LN, TN, CN, LE, NE, and with visible distaste at the last one, CE.

He said as everyone stared at it, "These are the Nine Alignments, every single thinking creature has one, though plants, constructs, and the majority of animals fall under the technical tenth category of Unaligned. Everyone falls somewhere on the Good/Evil axis, and the Lawful/Chaotic axis. These are proven to exist, they are detectable by certain pieces!"

Then the table looked at that chart, a simple chart, that if he was correct, was a definitive morality that altered the outcomes of real things.

Ruby was the first to speak, and said in a voice with some amount of awe, though laced with an underlying fear- no, terror that her sister and team easily picked up on, "You can- You can prove, without doubt, who is and isn't a good person?"

Memnol smiled and said, "Yes, in fact… hmm. My apologies for this, I'll owe you another favor afterwards."

Ruby was confused and said, "Wait, what do you- Owowowow!"

She was interrupted by a brief, steaming rain that drove down mainly on her and partially on Memnol, originating from thin air just a few feet above where she sat, which caused her to jump out from her seat as it was very painful. After just a moment, before anyone else could interact with it in any way, it was gone.

Ruby said, pouting, "What was that?"

Memnol had duplicated by Silent Limited Wish an Unholy Storm, shaped to only hit her, and partially him.

Memnol said, "I suppose what I thought of you was right Ruby, that piece only harms creatures that are explicitly Good. I suppose my congratulations are in order."

At that, Ruby stood there, almost in disbelief, until she said, quietly, "It only harms- it only harms good people? And- And I was hurt by it?"

She smiled a small but bright smile, and her eyes threatened to water, "I- I'm a good person? I- I know, that- that I'm a good person?"

Then, the ramifications of that collided into the rest of them in a heartbeat, like an avalanche. Right there, in the form of a once-assassin, was a way to get a real, true answer to a question that plagued even the greatest leaders in Remnant's history.

"Am I really a good person?"

The part of that that soon scared them as well however, as it had Ruby before, was that the answer it gave you wouldn't care what you thought. They could be wrong, and the thought of each of them sitting perfectly fine in that rain sent a shudder through each of them as the thought happened.

Ruby sat down, and hugged Yang tightly, hiding her eyes watering from joy, "I'm a good person Yang!"

While Yang pat her sister on the back, Nora said, "Wait, when you said I was chaotic, that meant…"

Ruby had just wiped her eyes off and was now beaming a smile as bright as the sun, when Memnol said, "Yes, I was simply wondering as to your Alignment. And yes, as I said before, that is the basis my Dagger drains its would-be wielders on. If they are Chaotic, for as long as they try to use it, they are drained to that degree, without care for proportion."

Yang said, realizing, "Hey, you seemed just fine in there."

Memnol said, "Yes, that is because I am not explicitly Good. It doesn't harm those who are Neutral, only those who are Good, and the vast majority of people are Neutral. While it was quite likely someone Evil did indeed make that Piece, there are also a good number of Neutral people who use it as part of their means to 'keep the balance'."

With the knowledge they had now, they could now practically hear the capitalization in his voice when he spoke.

Memnol soon said, "Ah, pardon me, the time nearly slipped me by. I must be getting to class, I believe we all must. I'll be seeing all of you again during Ms. Goodwitch's class then. Pleasant day until then."

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The remainder of that day was uninteresting, for them, aside from Ruby's nonstop smile, which rather warmed up every room she was in for the rest of the day. Once the classes were over, Memnol soon went to his Mansion and from that comfort, looked up on his scroll, "Where are the most Grimm?"

He was told that the unnamed continent that was shaped like a dragon was uninhabited due to the extremely large quantity of Grimm, which indirectly answered his actual question as technology tended to do. With this knowledge he put on his main attire including the Not-Yet-Named Staff since he was certain nobody would see it yet, drew the imprint from the most powerful Thought Bottle without putting a new one in, double-checked that he had calculated the distances from the map correctly, and Greater Teleported.

Two hundred feet above ground level, in the very heart of the Dragon Continent, and luckily directly towards a sizeable horde of Grimm, with some elders in the mix.

Falling at only 10 feet per second thanks to the War Wizard Cloak, he had plenty of time to cast one of the two Frostfells he had prepared alongside his Wishes that day, this time unconcerned for things such as "Collateral Damage". He felt another rush of growth by the time he landed and was going to enjoy spending the next few hours on a proper power-hungry rampage.

A couple hours later, when he actually had gone through around half of his spell slots, he realized that it would be far more efficient if first thing tomorrow, he added Greater Teleport and Frostfell to his staff, since they were rather useful. Well, Quickened Greater Teleport and Intensified Frostfell technically, but hey.

Soon enough he had burned a solid way through his spell slots, and while under his Ring of Sequestering's invisibility, teleported back to the library, then went back to his Mansion to Nest the Thought Bottles with the new imprints.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The next day was much of the same, though with the new additions to the Staff, he went back and forth whenever he had the time, though that pseudo-pain kept occurring as he added to it. He had been joining the Teams during lunch as well, though he put away the staff first. The conversation on each of the days that week was about Jaune slowly improving, and then Jaune deflecting to Pyrrha being much better.

While everyone else was polite, but agreeing, Memnol was, to Pyrrha's internal surprise, rather dismissive of Pyrrha's ability. Not in an oblivious way like Jaune had been, just in an, "I am not particularly impressed," kind of way. Weiss mentioned that Pyrrha was an arena champion, Memnol became even more dismissive, though still in an indirect way. It was an odd feeling to Pyrrha, she'd had all kinds of feelings directed towards her, but not really outright dismissal like that. Like she was just a child, who couldn't understand what the adults knew. It bugged her.

It bugged her a lot.

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This repeated, though Memnol just kept going and annihilating as many Grimm hordes as he could find in a timely manner between classes, now just hoarding this growth until he came up with more ideas for the still-unnamed Staff or felt it was time to progress himself.

Until Ms. Goodwitch's class came around on friday. The first spar was a match and a half between Team RWBY and CRDL. While normally team RWBY would win without too much hassle, team CRDL had managed much more team cohesion than RWBY had, after Cardin had heard about the rest of them getting in Memnol's way that one time, prompting him to start getting at least his own team as one solid unit. The match was enough that at the end, Glynda had dismissed both teams for the rest of the day, telling them that their fight was, "Exemplary, and earned full marks for the day."

After they had left, Ms. Goodwitch called out, "The next match is between Memnol Elodyr and Pyrrha Nikos! Change into combat gear and take your places."

They soon did so, though Memnol removed his Ring of Weaponbreaking during that for obvious reasons, since the people here were so utterly attached to their weapons. After that, the two stood opposite each other.

On one side was Pyrrha Nikos, a public star with a famous name that knew the arena, renowned for her fighting, in bright and almost-approachable red, the image of health, fitness, and honorable combat to the people, using well known and modern weaponry, a figure that filled the archetype of Champion. Yet those that met her found an honest, surprisingly apologetic person, who tried to be gentle about what they said and how they said it, often helpful to be helpful.

On the other side was Memnol Elodyr, who we have discussed well enough times before for you to get the picture in this instance, and to the people of Remnant remained a mystery.

Glynda saw the two in positions, Pyrrha with Milo and Akouo, Memnol with his typical metal Sap, and said, "Begin!"

Memnol didn't quite rush forwards this time, instead waving his hands around to cast an Automatically Silent Mirror Image in the first seconds of the fight while Pyrrha had been tense and ready. Now across from Pyrrha was nine of Memnol, only one of them real, though many first time encounters with Mirror Image led to the enemy thinking that all of them were real. All of them smiled, then leaned in and rushed forwards, also now using a Distract Assailant on Pyrrha. Though by some manner of luck or will or both, she was the first to resist it, and saw three of Memnol approaching straight on, to the left, and to the right. Just before he began to swing she raised her shield, and through her semblance could soon tell which one was real. She manipulated the sap into Akouo to be deflected, and counter stabbed with Milo at the real Memnol, who reacted in time to deflect the counter-stab himself, before backing away.

As he backed away Pyrrha quickly shifted Milo to rifle form and took shots at Memnol, who rather disregarded them as they bounced away, even when they should have hit him in the chest, his Aura bar not yet moving. He stood up, and took a moment to stretch even, causing her expression to grow tighter.

Pyrrha thought, "Please take me seriously."

Memnol put away his sap, and after a quick motion cast Spectral Weapon, wielding a semi-real shortsword, made of shadowstuff and not metal. He ran back forwards, as did the Mirror images that mimicked it. Pyrrha, who always watched the matches pretty closely, could tell up front that he wasn't putting in all that much effort or thought. Unknown to Pyrrha he had grown rather used to just waltzing through unthinking enemies lately.

He came in from the left, and Pyrrha soon learned that his weapon wasn't actually metal, and saw it for the semi-real shadowstuff it was, and so was only partially harmed by the moderate hit he got in. She had been able to block the other one correctly, sensing the location of his jewelry and real self by her semblance.

After that, he retreated again, his aura going down by a surprisingly notable amount any time a bullet actually managed to hit him, causing the audience to realize that his aura was actually quite fragile, a glass cannon. Or more accurately, unknown to them, a Paper-Mache volcano. He just stood there for a moment, taking the occasional hits, still feeling utterly invulnerable from his past few days of Grimm destroying.

Pyrrha thought as her expression tightened again, "Take me seriously!"

Memnol, feeling the full effects of the rush from the past few days, released the Spectral Weapon and ran directly towards Pyrrha, unarmed, a massive self-superior grin on his face as he abandoned much of what made him such a threat in perhaps his first true battle haze, only thinking that maybe she could manipulate weaponry. Pyrrha's anger flared up fully now.

As he went in to strike her, her semblance went full force and kept his arms from crossing by way of the bracers, his amulet tightened and pulled his neck back, and with an immense amount of semblance force behind it, Pyrrha thrust Milo forward with a great yell of effort and frustration.

Followed by the sound of shattering, and a meaty squelch, as just in front of her eyes, Milo was impaled through Memnol's chest, red blood flowing over the golden weapon.

Memnol in that moment, just instants from dying, realized what he had done wrong as he had done many times before, and in an instant both came up with a plan and relayed it to his IA's, which acted.

Memnol's last conscious motion was to take a lurching step backward, wrenching himself off Milo and ending his life. In that moment a few things happened, the screen which had previously warned about aura breakage now warned about a sudden disconnect, all the mirror images surrounding Pyrrha also showing an illusion of dying disappeared, and a Limited Wish duplicated a Solid Fog originating from Memnol's wound. In the very next moment, just a single second after his death and the fog appeared, an IA removed his scalp, careful to get all the hairs he could, knowing that some of them were polymorphed and hidden items of immense importance that looked just like any other hair, as it mimicked a pained and gurgling yell with their shared voice that they cut off a moment later. Less than half a second into the yell, according to their plan, another IA duplicated Last Breath.

Last Breath had many advantages, at the cost of needing to be immediate and leaving the target unconscious, such as not directly draining the soul. But what happened here wasn't a drain, it was rather, allocating what was already there, that Memnol had refused to expend before. With that power, the Weave gave him a wildly different new form as Reincarnate, and so Last Breath, would ever-so rarely do. Once in a hundred times, it would bring you into the body that most perfectly matched your spirit, above its normal effects, such as an elven barbarian coming back as an Ogre. It would even rearrange your very mind at times, such was how powerful that one in a hundred chance could be.

As such, the force of Magic gave him the body it found most suitable for an excessively intelligent, Lawful Evil being that didn't quite fit with its world.

In a half-second, Memnol's soul rejoined his new body, causing the display to go back to warning about Aura breakage. Then, the fog was dispelled by a Reaving Dispel from one IA, which revealed Pyrrha, frozen as she was for a moment. Until an instant later where she saw what everyone else had also seen revealed.

Glynda had soon levitated the figure off to the infirmary, dismissing the class as she brought it over. It was soon enough kept in a hospital bed, though it had to be strapped down as it kept moving about in its unconscious state. Over several hours, the infirmary staff had found its internals to be similar enough to a human's to monitor externally, bar the obvious differences that they wouldn't touch without permission.

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Unknown to them, during those hours, a more than minor fight had arose between two members of RWBY, which had just reached a climax once they were back in their room.

Weiss said, "... All my life they've been liars, thieves, and murderers!"

Blake responded, "Well maybe we're tired of being told we're worse than everyone else!"

After a moment of realization, Blake dashed out of the door.

A few moments later, the rest of Team RWBY went too, but she was already gone by then. They searched around the school for a good while, until they just couldn't go further. They had been considering what to do next, when Ruby proposed an idea, that she call in a favor tomorrow.

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Meanwhile, after the doctors had gotten a stable reading on the figure in the bed, Ozpin himself had soon arrived, and rather unceremoniously nudged Memnol awake.

Ozpin said, "So, assuming you are indeed my student still, you seem to look rather different."

Memnol said, his voice coming out deeper, more bass now than it's previous baritone and with some mild reverb, "Yes. Who is listening to us now?"

Ozpin drew the privacy curtain fully around.

Memnol said, "I am still the practitioner Memnol Elodyr, as proof I speak the names Amber and Qrow Branwen."

There was a slight shuffle behind the curtain, and Ozpin said, "Flare your aura, or what's left of it."

Memnol did so, and from him emanated flickers of silver, though some still had pure black marks.

Ozpin said, "Right then. I believe you well enough. I had hoped for you to meet Amber today, but I imagine you might prefer another time."

Memnol said, genuineness in his voice, "I am in your debt far more than you yourself may realize, Headmaster Ozpin. I thank you again, for all you have done and accommodated for me. Know that for a good while beyond the years here I have agreed to, I shall remain in your debt. Now if it is not too much to ask, could you leave those closed on your way out, and inform them that not only will I recover fine regardless, but that if they absolutely must insist then I will only trust Doctor Oobleck?"

Ozpin nodded, and said with an actual wink at the end, "Gladly. Before I go, I wish to know, what resulted in your current condition?"

Memnol said, quickly making it up, "Ah. I believe my semblance has caught up with me, you see. Though I was, and still am, frail in my form, I would always heal from my injuries rather quickly. I had privately suspected that my semblance kept some portion of my aura away from me, as well as my base physical health, in order to speed up recovery later."

Ozpin said, "A lower peak, with faster recovery."

Memnol said, "Precisely. I suspect that in my near-death state, my Semblance and The Art had some form of extreme combined reaction, thus preventing my death and rapidly healing me, though altering my body to this state you see now, where the bodily shock of such an event struck me unconscious. I believe that this interaction has even shifted that Semblance, thus eradicating my previous rapidity of health for a variety of new capabilities, though still leaving behind the frailty."

Ozpin said, "I believe I may have once heard of something similar, so that's rather believable. Well, do recover soon, Memnol."

Memnol said as Ozpin walked off, "A proper evening to you as well, Headmaster."

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Memnol thought for a moment, and felt extremely displeased with himself. He had kept presuming that since the Weave here was so permissive elsewhere, it would be the same in the regard of coming back from death. Now Memnol felt a weird mix, both more and less powerful, in varying areas.

Pros he could think of; He had a major boost in many of his capabilities, and the pseudo-remake of his mind seemed to have an extremely solid grasp on how he would actually manage to use that staff's Mass Heal, as well as whatever else he could think to tack on in that vein. He was also quite glad for the immense natural grasp on his new Psionics, in which he had a major headstart.

Cons on the other hand; His frailty had gotten even worse, though his strength hadn't deteriorated, in fact it was now mildly above-average he wagered. He had tried to fix his frailty before, but whether it was some Overdeific interdiction or something somehow greater that had done it, he was permanently in that state, regardless of what form he took. He had also just realized that while before his body could at least take one hit or two, this world played by some different rules due to its 'aura' and such.

He also forgot to ask Ozpin to undo the straps on him or move his haversack closer, and normally he just didn't forget, but that was probably among this world's side effects of resurrection. He lay his head back and slept.

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The next morning, after RWY had breakfast, they soon went to check at the library for Memnol, only to be told by the librarian that he heard Memnol was in the infirmary, way at the back. Once they went to the infirmary they soon saw a privacy screen fully drawn, and all the other beds were empty.

Ruby had walked up and said, as she started to draw the curtain, "Memno-"

Memnol-but-deeper-with-reverb interrupted, "Don't! Do not draw that curtain back!"

Ruby physically jumped back as she let go, and Memnol continued, "I do not desire to be seen at the moment. We can converse through the screen. What is it that you seek from me, Ruby, Ms. Xiao Long, and Madame Schnee?"

Ruby paused and said, "Umm, well, Blake kinda, ran off, yesterday, and I was hoping I could, eh, 'cash in' one of those favors so you'd help us find her."

After a long few moments of silence, Ruby started speaking, "I, I didn't know you were-"

Memnol interrupted, "I will assist."

Ruby said, "Wait, really! Wait, how?"

Memnol said, "I suppose that I myself may have to ask a favor too, hmm."

After a long pause, where Memnol was thinking, weighing on who, if any of them, he would consider trusting in some way.

He came to his decision and said, "Madame Schnee?"

Weiss, surprised, said, "Wha- Yes?"

Memnol said, "I-"

Another pause, with a long sigh. He said, "I must admit that I require some assistance. Can I trust you to aid me?"

Weiss said, "Of course!"

Memnol said, "Thank you, I owe you quite the amount for this, truly. You may come in, but leave it closed, please, until I walk out."

It dawned on them how, surprisingly touchy, Memnol was about being seen there.

Weiss walked in and screamed out loud.

In the clothes and jewelry of Memnol Elodyr, lying in the infirmary bed, was a tall being with a bald head, deep purple skin, even more spindly and long fingers than Memnol had with wicked-looking nails, entirely pale-white pupilless eyes, and most strikingly of all was the six tentacles extending from his face, the outermost and frontmost two far longer than the rest.

She would describe it as terrifying, a nightmarish sight, inhuman, and most definitely faunus.

He would describe it as familiar, a welcome sight, an aberration, and Ulitharid, which was a rare form of Illithid, or Mind Flayer.

She shouted, reaching for Myrtenaster which wasn't there, "What are you?!"

Memnol laughed and said, "Yes, I admit I do look a touch different, don't I?"

As the two others took steps closer he shouted, "Do not touch that screen or I shall not help you for a second!"

They stopped. Weiss said, "Prove it, that you're Memnol, you… Thing!"

Memnol said in a teasing tone, "Have I really been brought so far from 'Sir', Madame Schnee?"

Weiss said, almost blushing at the reminder, "It really is you. I- I'm sorry."

Memnol said, "No, no. I understand I must look like quite the thing. I will explain at a later time, preferably to both full teams so there's no risk of miscommunication. Now, could you undo these straps on my arms and legs? It appears that they require hands to undo, and I'd rather not test my other idea on how to remove them, as it would render them quite unusable."

Weiss soon did so, and Memnol attempted to stand up. For a single moment, he towered over her, only to immediately crumple, and needed to be caught by Weiss. All 8 feet and 8 inches of him were supported as he held a somewhat shaky hand to Weiss' shoulder. Weiss was rather surprised, as most people who interact with Illithids are, that the 'claws' weren't actually harmful, pretty much just like human nails with a mean look to them.

He took a solid moment before he risked trying to stand up fully, which soon failed again as he crumpled once more.

Memnol said, "If I look like I'm only just adjusting to this body, I rather am. The only reason these," He wriggled around his tentacles to Weiss' internal unease, "Are under control is that I could actually move them freely and practice. I'm terribly sorry, but I'll have to lean on you until I can get to my new staff that I've been working on, is that alright with you? Could you sling my Haversack over me as well, actually?"

Memnol slowly knelt down, and put a hand on the bed he was once in to balance himself from both sides as he did so, and once he was kneeling fully he was still a head taller than Weiss.

Weiss got the haversack and slung it over his shoulder as she said, "Of course, it's the least I could do."

She helped him back up and put his right hand on her left shoulder. Weiss said, looking away, "Also-"

Memnol tapped her shoulder by raising and lowering a finger already there, prompting her to go on.

Weiss continued, now more conscious of her feelings towards faunus than ever as she looked back at him, "I'm sorry. Sorry for being so rude, and distrusting, and all of that to you, when you've just been patient and polite, and understanding, and all of that."

Perhaps it was due to the still-present resurrection sickness, that Memnol said, a smile in his voice if not on his face, "I suspect that you are an Angel trying to redeem me in disguise, Madame Schnee, or I'm not Lawful. Thank you greatly, all such minor things are forgiven now, as they were earlier."

Weiss froze for a moment in thought until Memnol started walking forwards, leading to her also starting to walk.

Ruby and Yang took a step backwards when they saw Memnol leaning on Weiss, slowly walking with very slightly more stable steps each time, emerging from the curtain.

Yang said, "Well, uhh, you look… Different. You do something with your hair?"

Memnol gave a painfully dry laugh and said, "It is gone, at the moment. Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't notice the other change, and offended too, I go through all the effort of changing my race and you don't even comment on it, Hm!"

RWY laughed for a moment, though Weiss cut herself off when it caused Memnol to nearly fall again. Even with him having to bend over slightly, he was well taller than anyone else here, though the effect was mildly lost by his current state. They soon started walking over towards the library where he directed, and they idly spoke of what happened for each of them last night, Memnol repeating his tale about his semblance, Ruby mentioning the fight between them.

As they walked, they missed the moment when one student took a picture of the Schnee heiress, helping lead an apparently-blind faunus around Beacon, and sent that photo off without hesitation.

They soon reached the library, when Memnol said, "Thank you so much, Madame Schnee, for your help. I will remember this debt. I should be back out in a few moments."

Weiss said before he went in, "Weiss!" He turned back around, "You, you can call me Weiss."

He said, nodding slowly, "I will remember that then, Weiss."

Once he was in, it only took a moment for an Unseen Servant to bring him his staff, and with his newfound skill, he was able to activate the Quickened Twinned Mass Heal, restoring him to full faculties. Twice. Because that was definitely reasonable for him to do at will. He walked further in, only to stumble and need the staff to walk, as he still would need at least a few weeks or so, he figured, to fully adjust to the new body. He still remembered the months it took for him to learn to walk as an infant. He soon found and nested his thought bottles, and quickly perused and prepared his spells for the day, already knowing his new Psionic abilities. He took a moment to look at the now too small staff, and a Wish soon made it large enough, now at 7 feet total, with the 1-foot endings. He also took a moment to smile at just how much rampaging among the Grimm he had gotten done, and elected to call it enough for the moment.

RWY was soon greeted by the sight of him emerging from thin air, now standing at his full height, towering over them in expensive equipment, repaired by a Limited Wished Make Whole, resized automatically as many wearable magic items did, with an amethyst staff in hand.

He looked, in a word, regal.

Ruby asked, star-struck by the staff, "Ooh! What's its name?"

Memnol said from above, in his newly deepened and reverbing voice, "I had not named it yet, actually. However, hmm."

Then after a split second Memnol burst into laughter and said, "Yes! I know now. It shall be named Loom. Fitting for us, no?"

RWY quite agreed that 'Loom' was accurate at the moment, as he stood well above them, with a smile that was solely in the eyes from here and onwards.

Memnol said, beginning to walk with the Staff, "Now, let us find Ms. Belladonna."